Professor Shirley Leitch

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement) provides leadership across a broad portfolio, including international alliances and partnerships, national and international government relations, marketing, brand management, strategic communication, and public policy.

Previously, Professor Leitch was Dean of the College of Business and Economics at the Australian National University. While Dean, her major strategic initiatives centred on increasing external engagement with industry, public sector, and international partners, including the establishment of an Innovation Hub, internship programs, and expanding international university partnerships.

Professor Leitch has a longstanding interest in online education and currently co-chairs the Revenue Committee of edX, which offers massive open online courses (MOOCS) to millions of students. Prior to joining the ANU, she was Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, where she co-founded the successful, education technology company, Online Education Services Ltd (OES) in partnership with SEEK Ltd. In 2015, OES was recognised as Australia's fastest growing company in the BRW Fast 100.

Professor Leitch's own research is focused on public discourse and change, including science-society engagement in relation to controversial science and technology. She and her research teams have received more than $5m in national competitive grants, including for an Australian Research Council project on the Mineral Resources Rent Tax, and the NZ Foundation for Research Science Technology projects, Building our Productivity: Understanding sustainable collective productivity in NZ firms, and Sustainable Biotechnology. She is currently engaged on an ARC Linkage Project on Preventing Railway Suicide.